MEET THE TEAM
Rita Leduc
Creator, Co-Founder, Executive Director
GW Process Leadership: Rita asks, “What are you doing in the world and how do you and that fit in relationship with the world?”
Rita Leduc is an interdisciplinary artist whose practice uses visual explorations of environmental ecosystems to inform conceptual and practical investigations into broader systems and relationships. In all of her work, Leduc’s process is one of examination, absorption, and participation to uncover pathways of understanding and possibility. She is currently an Artist-In-Residence at Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest, and holds ongoing engagements with The Place Collective, Oika, Art-Sci at FSMLs and The Third Thing Project. Leduc’s work has been shown throughout the greater New York City area and beyond, including exhibitions at the Museum of the White Mountains (NH), Mount Saint Mary College (NY), Terrain Biennial (NY), Wells College (NY), Nizhny Tagil Museum of Fine Art (Russia), Project 59 at Governors Island (NYC), RAW (Miami), and Ortega y Gasset Projects (NYC). Past residencies include i-Park Foundation, PLAYA, Tofte Lake, Vermont Studio Center, and White Pines Bird Language Retreat. She has received support from NYFA, the Jerome Foundation, Oika, Atlas Obscura, the Wells College Scholar-in-Residence Program, and Rutgers University, among others. Her work has been featured on the cover of Signal House Edition as well as in unpsychology magazine, Artis Natura, A+E Collective, and 100days100women. Leduc received her MFA from Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University, Post-Baccalaureate Certificate from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, BA from the University of Pennsylvania. She teaches at Rutgers University in their new interdisciplinary program, Creative Expression and the Environment.
Chris Bodwitch
Director of Relational Play
GW Connective Processing: Chris asks, “What is going on inside of you and how does that relate to what you’re doing in the world?”
Bodwitch has been performing, teaching and choreographing modern, improvisational dance and physical theater for almost 3 decades. Her first creation was Rhombus Dance, a company dedicated to the experimentation of objects, moving bodies and the scientific process. Then, after participating in an intensive performance program at the Dell' Arte International in Blue Lake, CA, she fell in love with theatrical, european-style clown. She went on to study with Kendall Cornell and joined Clowns ExMachina, an all-women clown troupe in NYC. Currently, she runs a performance and (re)learning lab called Muck and Gold and uses her certification as a Dynamic Emotional Integration Coach to integrate clown, dance and the language of our emotions for healing.
Clara DeAngelo
Executive Chef (Retreats)
Formerly an associate casting director for networks such as ABC, NBC, Amazon, and A&E, DeAngelo left show business to transform her passion into her career. After graduating at the top of her class at the International Culinary Center (formally The French Culinary Institute), she founded @taste.as.i.go and joined GROUNDWORK as resident Executive Chef. Her cooking style is elevated and elegant with a hearty, home-cooked backbone: rustic chic.
Patricia Brace
Co-Founder, Co-Director (2014-2019)
Raised in Cherryfield, Maine, Brace is a performance artist whose work addresses the relationship between intersectional feminism and politics through her use of dance, new media and installation. Brace currently teaches at University of Maine at Augusta and College of the Atlantic and formerly taught at Mason Gross School of the Arts, Rutgers University. Brace recently exhibited at The Center for Maine Contemporary Art in Rockland, The Institute of Contemporary Art in Portland, Maine, This Friday Next Friday Gallery in Brooklyn, NY and Tête Gallery in Berlin, Germany. Brace's work has also been shown at Gary Snyder Project Space and SOHO 20 in New York and Ortega Y Gasset Projects, Smack Mellon, Public Address Gallery and Trestle Gallery in Brooklyn. Brace has attended The Studios at MASS MoCA, Solo(s) Project House, and Vermont Studio Center. She is the recipient of the Professional Development Grant, Giza Daniels Endesha Award, the Ray Stark Film Prize, and the Leon Golub Scholarship.